Sapporo, Concert, Otaru…
Hi there! This week was very nice, still enjoying Japan, full of Music, meeting new people and visiting new places.
We had our concert in Sapporo (Hokkaido). As you may know from my last week blog we flew here and I have to say it is really nice that it is a bit less hot than in Nagoya or Osaka, here we are more north and the weather is a bit less warm and actually less humid, at least the days I visited. It was an amazing experience to visit this new city and to sing a concert at the “Kanamoto Hall” which is for around 1500 people and it was full of over 1000 students from a high-school plus the many teachers. The whole concert was very challenging again in a good way, it was the same program from our concert in Nagoya. Singing for students was really nice, specially for many of them was the first time they saw a concert with classical singers. We got notes written by the students one day after the concert and reading what they wrote was really funny and refreshing. For most it was really surprising how classical singing is and how they felt a sudden interest on listening further this type of music, other comments like, how opera is fun and the intensity of the duets and the acting, also many commented on the fact that we can sing in a big hall without the microphone and they still heard us. But the funniest comment from a student goes something along the lines “It was so nice to hear the voices, I felt so calm that I was able to sleep very comfortably”.
On a sort of analizing, the feelings and thoughts going through during a performance are so surreal sometimes. The mind loves wondering around, that is why is so important to me to practice temperance, and focus myself on the task of performing and for me the best thing to do as important as warming up the voice is, to keep calm, the be present and stay calm... or rather and intense calmness, ready to sing and to do many difficult things vocally but still keep the heart rate comfortable. I notice these concerts I was able to stay calm, the same by the recent performances of Thérèse. At least for me helps me a lot, also adding to what Gregory Kunde advised me for the voice, and breathing through the nose in his way, it has really helped.
In Sapporo I could feel people is slightly different than other places in Japan, more calm, really friendly and they all made the effort to speak a bit English. I try to use my very minimal Japanese and that has helped a lot too. We went to Otaru by the sea, it was really nice and ate and walked a lot (look it up online, really nice city by the sea). I have my fuji xt4 with me the whole time so I have already taken many photos and I am looking forward to keep taking more.
We already came back to Osaka and Today (Sunday) we went to a “Spocha” ( a kind of sports center with more than 50 sports, game arcades, food court where both adults and children can have so much fun) it is worth searching online, just google the word “Spocha in Japan”. It was amazing, I have never played Basketball, Baseball, ping pong, soccer, billiard, etc... in one day! We were there only for 5 hours, the heat outside for some of the sports was a bit too strong but also there is inside places so very nice to cool down before going out again. We went with Aki's family and we really enjoyed it. I feel however the pain in my body for the upcoming days awaits me. But I have to say it was so nice to do so many different physical activities like never before. If you can Google "Round 1" in Japan, so you can get an idea of this. Also check online photos from Sapporo and Otaru. This week up there in Hokkaido we ate Ramen from traditional recipe, sushi twice and also Genghis Khan food (google it), also traditional Hokkaido sweets and the delicious milk. Of course my coffee continues and in Sapporo I found some very nice coffee shops, like “Poool Cafe” and “Mermaid Coffee Roaster” this last one being my favorite, they had a great selections of coffee with different kind of roastings, my favorite which I had at the coffee and also bought some beans was a very fruity Colombian light roast.
I kept doing my exercise, daily reading plus my mornign pages and finally finished "think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill. Take care and see you next week.
